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August 10, 2010

Birthday dinner and drinks at The Irish Heather European GastroPub in Gastown on August 6, 2010.

Last Friday night, I left my trusty Canon PowerShot S90 point and shoot camera at home for the first time in ages. I went to a birthday dinner for an acquaintance I barely knew.

So I thought there probably would not be much reason for photo taking, much less blogging. However, I was dead wrong and had to resort to snapping up some pretty unspectacular, subpar quality photos with my crappy cellphone camera halfway through the night and after dinner.

I met the birthday girl, Andrea, during my stint at CBC. She spent a day with reporter Theresa Lalonde and I during her summer-long rotation at the public broadcaster. She, however, was roommates with my good friend and BCIT colleague, Monica Martinez, during their work with OBS during the Olympics. Monica invited me, since I sort of knew Andrea, and I would be friendly face to accompany her.

So far during the summer, I have instituted a policy of saying yes to social invitations with pretty great results. So although I was a bit audaciousness about going to a dinner party full of strangers and not knowing the host very well at all, I also really wanted to catch up with Monica and exchange summer stories. And through my limited time with Andrea, she showed herself to be a true sweetheart.

I was relieved to know that the group that night was a bunch of different people not familiar with each other. Introductions were made through out the night. It was a great night of beer, wine, scotch, and Irish bar food. I had an R&B Raven Cream Ale and a Blue Buck Pale Ale, which were both frosty and smooth. I ate the bangers and mash with onions rings. It was very tasty but quite hearty with my two beers. Monica's Heather pot pie looked very tasty and filling. Someone else had the grilled cheese which also looked quite good.

Arriving on time and earlier than most everyone else, we were situated in the middle of a long dining table. This proved advantageous as conversations were easy to jump in and out of the birthday girl was never too far away. It was strange actually getting to know and spend way more time than I had before at her dinner party, but I had a blast.

The Irish Heather proved to be a very cool, casual lounge-type bar with a limited but eclectic selection of Northern European eats and beverages. It was really fun and interesting being thrown into a new selection of people I did not know.

The food and drinks were good but heavy and my mouth felt scratchy and dry by the end of the night. All said, it was an engaging night with some interesting folks. P.S. The mocha cheesecake was deliciously decadent.